7Category of Tense

The Category of Tense is the basic verb category. It expresses the correlation between the action and event and objective time. We know that the actions or event can exist and develop only in time. The morphological category of tense reflects the objective logical category of time. But the difficulty is that the morphological category of tense doesn't always express the objective time. We should differentiate the notions of the objective and relative time. In the language we mostly deal not with objective but with relative time. We can speak of the objective-time only in those cases wnen the moment of speaking coensides with a developing action. But actually we take some moment of time as a starting point in reference to which all the actions are expressed.

If this starting point of time is taken in the plane including the moment of speaking then we deal with the Present tense.

Any action which proceeds this starting moment of time is expressed by the Past Tense. And finally, any action which follows this starting point of time is expressed by the Future Tense. So we differentiate 3 principal tense forms in English: Present, Past, Future.

In English there exists one more specific tense form which is called the "Future-in-the-Past". This tense form is used when we want to say that the action is treated as Future in reference to some Past moment of time.

The Present Tense is formed by the Infinitive without the particle to in the 3-rd person singular the verb takes the inflexion -s(-es). The Past Tense of the regular verb is formed with the help of the inflexion -ed. The Past Tense of the irregular verbs is formed in some different ways:

1) by sound alternation (sit-sat-sat);

2) by sound alternation and a dental suffix (keep-kept-kept);

3) supplitively (be-was/were-been);

4) without any change in the form of the verb (put-put-put).

The Future Tense is formed with the help of the auxiliary verb shall/will and the infinitive of the notional verb.

The Future-in-the-Past is formed with should/would and infinitive of the notional verb without the particle "to".

Traditional grammar speaks of 16 tense forms in English but actually there exist only 4 of them. The matter is that when speaking about an action we express its primary characteristics of tense but then it may be necessary to show the character of the development of the action or to compare the action with some other one and then in suchycases the primary tense category is modified by some other verb categories such as aspect (continuous or non-continuous), perfect (perfect or non-perfect).

So we get complex analytical forms, which express not one category of tense but a number of them. Ex. If we analyze such forms, as "is reading" we should say that this verb expresses Present Tense and continuous aspect or perfect. Hence the modification of the category of Tense by the category of aspect brings about the appearance of 16 verb forms.

When speaking about the category of tense we should remember that we distinguish different tense forms on the basis of some opposition. But in a number of cases these oppositions may be reduced. It means that morphological form typical of one tense may express the meaning of some other tense. We usually observe it in definite contexts.

Ex. The form of the Present Tense may express the meaning of the Past, Future Tense in subordinate clauses of time and condition (If I see him tomorrow I will ask him to do it for you).

Besides the Present Tense may be used to express an action planned for the Future especially with verbs of motion. When dealing with the category of tense we should touch upon one more problems, which is typical of English. The problem is known as the Sequence of tenses. In English if the predicate verb in the main clause of a complex sentence is used in the past tense, the predicate verbs in the subordinate clauses саn be used in the present or future tenses. The Present tense is replaced by the Past Tense modified or not modified by the Perfect and the Future Tense is replaced by the Future-in-the-Past.

The Sequence of tenses is explained by many traditional grammars as a mechanical shift of tenses. However, this explanation can't be treated as adequate. No mechanical shift takes place.

In the events in the main and subordinate clauses are simultaneous, then the same tense forms are used. If the events of the subordinate clause precede the events of the main clause, than the predicate verb in the subordinate clause is modified by the Perfect.

In the actions the subordinate clause follow the events of the main clause, then the predicate verb takes the specific form in the Future-in-the-Past.

We observe this correlation of events only when the starting temporal center is in the Past.

But if the starting point is in the Present, no sequence of tenses is observed and we use any tense form in the subordinate clause or clauses, which is required by the logical sequence of events. So what we mean by the traditional term Sequence of Tenses that is in reality sequence of events is nothing but a synthesis of two categorical notions:

1) The category of tense which expresses the relation of the action to some moment of time.;

2) The category of perfect, which expresses the relation of actions to each other.